A Reform UK councillor has been charged with 35 offences including 12 counts of rape.
George Madgwick, the party's leader on Hampshire county council, was also charged with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of assault by penetration, two counts of making and one count of distributing indecent images of a child.
The charges follow an investigation by Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary into allegations relating to four complainants between 2008 and 2021. The claims relate to four alleged victims who were aged between 16 and 17 at the time, police said.
